Yukiko - Hydroponics

You're not a doctor, at least you weren't originally, but you're fairly sure that poisonings are high-priority medical issues. You mark the request for processing and your device quickly chirps directions from where you are to the hydroponics lab.

The trip there is dull, it's only as you become familiar with the station that it sinks in how few people there are inside of it. Not a colony, you have to remind yourself, a research outpost. The kind of place where everybody has to know everybody, whether they want to or not. The kind of place you could really come to hate the people around you, maybe enough to push them into an airlock?

The door to hydroponics opens. The wave of humidity that comes rolling out would have informed you of as much even if the sudden splash of green in your vision didn't. The division between plant rows stretches out far enough in each direction that the waves of fluctuating colors block any sight of where it ends. You step in and the door almost instantly seals behind you, they must not want the humidity filling the rest of the station. You step into the rows of plants wondrously, you're almost certain that every plant you've ever seen is represented here.

"Hello?" You call out into the landscape of flora.

"Hello!" Comes a muffled response seemingly from deep within.

You step further into the snaking lines of plant life, trying to follow where you think the voice came from. As you pass deeper and deeper in, the colors of the plants become far more vibrant. The smells become sweeter, more alluring. Even though the sensible back of your mind reminds you of the phrases "warning coloration" and "strong poison" you feel the uncontrollable urge to start taking large bites of everything around you. Instead, your foot slams into something at the ankle level and sends you flying forward.

The ground comes up to meet you suddenly. You barely manage to throw your hands out and keep your face from smashing into the metal floor. A muffled "Ouch." comes from behind you.

You turn to see what you tripped over, a figure lies on her stomach in the middle of the pathway. She's resting her head on her crossed arms but otherwise lies stiff as a board. You reach to check her pulse, but as soon as you do her mouth twists and tries to **** a word through clenched teeth.

"Antidote." She groans. "Left butt."

"What?"

"LEFT. BUTT." She tries to shout through the spittle.

You lift the labcoat hanging past her waist and notice the bulge in the left rear pocket of her slacks. You fish out the hypodermic needle inside.

"Antidote." She hisses. "Administer."

You pull the waistband of her slacks down and find a good vein right in the meat of her rear end. You give her a quick jab before returning the needle to her pocket. Her body slowly relaxes and in a few minutes, she's able to roll onto her back.

"Thanks. Took you long enough." She offers as she stretches out her joints slowly.

She stands and takes a moment to crack her back and neck before pulling a pair of coke-bottle glasses from her pocket and putting them on. She's pale as chalk but has unmistakably Asian features. Her hair is a sloppy black chin-length bob. She has the expression of somebody constantly grinding their teeth. She's good looking but gaunt and anxious.

"What happened to you?" You ask.

"For the record, I didn't eat anything this time." She says as she tries her best to twist a knot out of her neck. "I may or may not have improperly sanitized after handling neurotoxins."

"You're making neurotoxins?"

"You aren't?"

She starts walking before giving you a chance to respond, you follow her so you can fill out your report.

"So should I put the cause as accidental?" You ask, trying to scrub your new mind for how to properly fill out medical forms.

"I mean if it helps you. I wouldn't call it an accident."

"What would you call it?"

"Monkshood makes me hungry and they keep declining my request for hand-wash stations."

"I don't have a category for that."

"I would have thought corporate bullshit was the only category."

She arrives at a door tucked behind row after row of greenery. She punches in a password and slips in. You try to follow her but it clasps shut behind her. You look at your half-filled form and consider leaving but decide against it. You knock on the metal hatchway.

It slides open and she peeks her face out "Sorry, who are you?"

"The uh... doctor."

"Right, blonde, big tits, boring moral code, I've heard of you. Come in then."

The parts of her room that aren't pink and cutesy are decorated with what you can only describe as "mad scientist flair." She has a framed picture of Audrey 2 over her bed and what looks like vine and leaf patterns on all of her bedding. She throws off her lab coat into a pile of laundry sitting in one corner. She's wearing a lime turtleneck underneath and a pair of almost intentionally ugly slacks. She washes her hands in a dingy sink and starts to slide out of her pants without a second thought.

She's thin as a pole, you can see her ribs poking out in her chest as she slides out of her top as well. You realize immediately that she doesn't wear a single thing under her clothes as her thick black bush turns to face you.

"So do you need something?"

"Uh... You're naked."

She looks down at herself. "So I am. And not a mark on me. You going to note that or do you want to get naked too?"

You quickly make sure to note that she doesn't have any other injuries in your datapad. You try not to stare at her as she looks at you probingly.

"Okay, I think that's everything."

"None of you ever actually get naked, something about doctors." She snarks before climbing into bed. She takes her datapad off of her nightstand and in a few moments the room is overtaken by what sounds like an orchestra rolling down a hillside. You stand semi-stunned for a moment.

She turns back to you. "Shoo, this is my sleep playlist. I just had to keep myself awake for 16 hours with my eyes closed."

You step outside of the Hydroponics lab, not sure entirely what just happened. But, you can mark one of your jobs off of the list.